What if, I own newyork-painters.com (in 2002) and someone bought ny-painters.com (2

[timtim2008]

What if, I bought, own and operate newyork-painters.com (in 2002) and someone bought ny-painters.com (2006) ?

(These are not the domains in question, but just an example)

And I’m really a painter, and they really are a painter (or similar service)

Anyone have any experience in dealing with situations like this?

Should i file for TM before they do? (how much does this run?)

Do I have any rights at all to stop them? Or can a initial/abbreviations be used? (ie. New York city knowned initial is NY or NYC etc. )

Same with Los Angeles and LA? Etc…

 

[flamewalker]

Unfortunately your example is very descriptive, and imo would likely fail any attempt to trademark... you are describing what you do. As is his/her domain.

IMO, find a name that you can trademark and that is available on the web... and use that instead of a descriptive name. I learned this one the hard way... in my case I CAN go after the other guy (not descriptive phrase), but the costs are too high.

You could easily redirect traffic from newyork-painter.com (in your example) to your new business name.

IMO, you wouldn't have much ground to stand on based on the example.

 

[localexperts]

I agree. You are not going to have much luck for a generic. Now if it is a brandable domain like imandi.com and you reg imandi.tv. I'm coming after you guns a blazing.